Murtaza Bhutto murder case judgment challenged

SHC admits counter appeals against acquittal of Murtaza’s men and policemen.

KARACHI:

An appellate bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) admitted on Thursday two counter appeals in Mir Murtaza Bhutto’s murder case for regular hearing.

The SHC bench, comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Shahid Anwar Bajwa, summoned respondents in both appeals filed by AIG Shahid Hayat against six comrades of the late Mir Murtaza Bhutto, including Ashique Hussain Jatoi and six other workers of the PPP Shaheed Bhutto group.

The other appeal was filed by Noor Muhammad against  the police officers involved in the alleged shoot-out between the police and Murtaza Bhutto and his men, which occurred just a few paces from the ancestral residence of the Bhuttos commonly known as 70 Clifton.

The appeals were directed against a judgment of an additional District and Sessions Court which acquitted both the police officials and the men on Murtaza’s side, leaving every one guessing who killed eight men on September 20, 1996.

Advocate Omar Siyal appearing for Appellant Noor Muhammad, submitted that a police party fired at Mir Murtaza and his men while they were returning home after attending a public meeting held in Yousuf Goth, District West.

The counsel for the appellant maintained that an inquiry tribunal was constituted by the federal government to investigate the incident.

However, the counsel added that the report was not allowed to be brought on record by the trial court.

Siyal also contended that none of the accused police officials claimed that they were fired upon and they exercised their right of self defense by firing upon other party but the Judge has considered this aspect of the matter at great length in his judgment without there being any evidence to this effect.

Siyal also submitted that the trial court ‘disbelieved’ all seven eye witness accounts for the reason that they were ‘not of good character’. However, he added that the court had no material to reach a conclusion regarding the characters of the eye witnesses.

The bench admitted the appeal for a regular hearing, while directing the office to call records and papers of the case from the sub-ordinate of the trial court.

President Asif Zardari was nominated as the main accused in the FIR, but was absolved at the pre-trial stage for lack of evidence.

The bench also admitted a counter appeal filed by then ASP, now ADIG Shahid Hayat against the acquittal of six men of Mir Murtaza Bhutto.

Shaukat Zubedi, counsel for the appellant, submitted that although he appeared before the trial court and advanced arguments, his contentions were not recorded in the judgment. He contended that the acquitted accused were arrested by the police from the place of the incident as complainant ASP Shahid Hayat and the then SHO Clifton Inspector Haq Nawaz Sial sustained injuries in the alleged shoot out. Haq Nawaz Sial was killed one week later under mysterious circumstances.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd, 2011.